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Lot Essay
"All Zao Wou-Ki paintings are landscapes, not by choice but as an evidence: there is never a separation between man and nature. Boundaries between culture and nature collapse, drowned in the elemental cataract. We must draw consequences from this fusion. Zao Wou-Ki paints landscapes with no perspective." (Dominique de Villepin, in Zao Wou-Ki, Flammarion, 2009)
29.08.88 (Lot 103) is a window opening into botanical scenery: deep emerald green arches and earthy splinters draw a low horizon on an open space of powdery pinks and diluted pale blue. The yellow-green on the left gently dissolves into the light upper part, creating a sense of weightlessness, a challenge to the texture of the thick oil paint. The various colours merge into a harmonious whole, symbolizing the forging of the Chinese painter and his natural subject into a continuous entity. Layers of oil produce depth, resulting in a subtle game of transparency from the ink-like washes. Free from the Western Renaissance's three-dimensional perspective technique, and thanks to his Parisian schooling in abstract painting, Zao Wou-Ki offers an unprecedented form of depth, infused with the effect of Chinese landscape painting atmospherics. Moreover, by omitting the creation of a focal point in his composition, the artist implies a total continuity between the painter and nature, encompassing the essence of the universe and life. He creates the notion of depth through texture, and the modulation of viscosity and transparency in a dichotomous background-foreground dynamic.
In 1973, Zao Wou-Ki took up Chinese ink painting again and recovered the spontaneity of the brush on absorbent paper. This new practice allowed the artist more freedom and agility in his painting, thus opening up a larger spectrum of possibilities with the oil paint material. 29.08.88 exemplifies perfectly his 1980s compositions, where the mature artist merges both his 30 years of abstract research, and the ancestral Chinese tradition of ink painting and philosophy, into a perfectly balanced and unique approach.
The female American painter Joan Mitchell arrived in Paris at the same time as Zao Wou-Ki and befriended the Chinese artist in the vibrant artistic scene of Montparnasse, Paris. Mitchell's compositions are similarly informed by imagined landscapes or feelings about places, as she often painted in her garden. We detect in both practices the abnegation of perspective, and a need to connect to nature through painting, seeking a balance within tension. Their respective differences, both gendered and cultural, strengthen their creativity in comparison to their Parisian contemporaries, allowing more spontaneity on the canvas and a certain emotional intensity. Always suggesting and never representing, Zao Wou-Ki and Joan Mitchell both evidence a strong mastery of abstraction, which they use as a tool to channel the ineffable world. In this sense, both painters become the true heirs of Claude Monet, the first Impressionist leader to consider his environment in a complex and interconnected way. Mitchell's own words apply perfectly to Zao's approach: "My paintings repeat a feeling about Lake Michigan, or water, or fields...it's more like a poem...and that's what I want to paint."
29.08.88 (Lot 103) is a window opening into botanical scenery: deep emerald green arches and earthy splinters draw a low horizon on an open space of powdery pinks and diluted pale blue. The yellow-green on the left gently dissolves into the light upper part, creating a sense of weightlessness, a challenge to the texture of the thick oil paint. The various colours merge into a harmonious whole, symbolizing the forging of the Chinese painter and his natural subject into a continuous entity. Layers of oil produce depth, resulting in a subtle game of transparency from the ink-like washes. Free from the Western Renaissance's three-dimensional perspective technique, and thanks to his Parisian schooling in abstract painting, Zao Wou-Ki offers an unprecedented form of depth, infused with the effect of Chinese landscape painting atmospherics. Moreover, by omitting the creation of a focal point in his composition, the artist implies a total continuity between the painter and nature, encompassing the essence of the universe and life. He creates the notion of depth through texture, and the modulation of viscosity and transparency in a dichotomous background-foreground dynamic.
In 1973, Zao Wou-Ki took up Chinese ink painting again and recovered the spontaneity of the brush on absorbent paper. This new practice allowed the artist more freedom and agility in his painting, thus opening up a larger spectrum of possibilities with the oil paint material. 29.08.88 exemplifies perfectly his 1980s compositions, where the mature artist merges both his 30 years of abstract research, and the ancestral Chinese tradition of ink painting and philosophy, into a perfectly balanced and unique approach.
The female American painter Joan Mitchell arrived in Paris at the same time as Zao Wou-Ki and befriended the Chinese artist in the vibrant artistic scene of Montparnasse, Paris. Mitchell's compositions are similarly informed by imagined landscapes or feelings about places, as she often painted in her garden. We detect in both practices the abnegation of perspective, and a need to connect to nature through painting, seeking a balance within tension. Their respective differences, both gendered and cultural, strengthen their creativity in comparison to their Parisian contemporaries, allowing more spontaneity on the canvas and a certain emotional intensity. Always suggesting and never representing, Zao Wou-Ki and Joan Mitchell both evidence a strong mastery of abstraction, which they use as a tool to channel the ineffable world. In this sense, both painters become the true heirs of Claude Monet, the first Impressionist leader to consider his environment in a complex and interconnected way. Mitchell's own words apply perfectly to Zao's approach: "My paintings repeat a feeling about Lake Michigan, or water, or fields...it's more like a poem...and that's what I want to paint."